A woman in northern Italy is seriously ill in hospital after reportedly being infected with the human version of mad cow disease.

THE deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria - the first reported outbreak in Africa, the World Organisation for Animal Health said yesterday.

A top official from the UN World Health Organisation called for an increase in global capacity to produce flu vaccines, warning that recently boosted production capacity is not enough to handle any human pandemic.

A suspected case of foot-and-mouth has been reported in Italy.

The Italian health ministry has reported the country's first suspected case of mad cow disease in a native cow.